"Tell me," he finally said, "tell me why they painted this boy?"
"To get us off the trail of the prince," replied Ned.
"But it seems that they failed," suggested Jack. "You know?"
"I suspected from the very first," Ned answered. "Yesterday afternoon
I knew."
"Well, it may be all right," Jack muttered, "or the man who brought
him here may need a new wire on his trolley, but I can't see why they
should bring this counterfeit prince here at all."
"They knew that we were coming here," Ned explained, resolved to give
his chum a full understanding of the situation. "They knew we were
coming here in quest of the prince. How they knew I can't make out,
but they knew."
"They might have heard more than we supposed from the attic over the
clubroom," Jack suggested.
"If the story of the maid and the coachman is straight," Ned
continued, "they heard little that night. But they knew! They might
have bribed some of the servants. I don't know. They might have been
in that room before that evening.
"At any rate, when the Boy Scout Camera Club started for West
Virginia by way of Washington the friends of the abductors knew what
was going on. Now, it is my opinion that the prince had been headed
for the mountains before the conspirators became aware of our
connection with the case.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161